Common black and white film is made with silver halide, a chemical that can be developed with an alkaline solution in order to bring out the images one has captured with a camera. Many substances can work as "developers," but the hard part is getting the alkalinity right so that the developer can bring out the image: most developers on their own will only give cloudy, indistinct images. One easy way to develop film at home is to use coffee, vitamin C, and washing soda. The first two ingredients bind together to form an effective developer; the washing soda adds alkalinity to the solution and, when film is deposited into the mixture, images are developed. The coffee and washing soda method is less exact than what you might be used to with commercial developing agents; try experimenting with different ingredient ratios and tweaking your camera's exposure to get the look you want for your photographs. This technique requires a developing tank, a simple piece of home photography equipment in which you load your undeveloped film onto reels and close them within a tank with developing fluid. Developing tanks are available at any local photography supplier.

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Tips

Measurements are given in teaspoons and in grams. These are rough guidelines; you may find that you need to change them substantially for your particular ingredients and film. In general, the ratio of washing soda to coffee in weight should be between 5 to 1 and 10 to 1; the ratio of coffee to Vitamin C powder should be between 1 to 1 and 2 to 1.

Instant coffee may be easier to use than brewed coffee because it has a constant consistency, whereas brewed coffee's consistency and strength is harder to gauge.

Washing soda can be purchased at many supermarkets or health stores. Additionally, you may find sodium carbonate with pool suppliers or chemical supply stores; this is the same thing.

Vitamin C crystals are preferable to Vitamin C tablets because the tablets have a binder that will not work in the developing solution. If you can only find tablets, try crushing them, adding them to water, and filtering them with a paper filter to remove the binder.

Warnings

Do not use baking soda. Washing soda is sodium carbonate, while baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Using baking soda will ruin your undeveloped film.

The coffee and washing soda developing process creates a very strong, very bad smell when the ingredients are mixed together. Wearing a protective mask over the nose and mouth may make the process easier.